Pardon Me While I Bask

It's a funny old life, says Doctor Who.

I've always felt a bit -- behind in life. Taking the best part of a decade to finish your bachelor's degree will do that I suppose. And Doug? Damn! This guy...

I can't even... 

Everything he's done for me. Everything he still does for me. Everything he's postponed, sacrificed, suffered, and endured. This guy has earned a little luxury.

Form of, WATER!!

(If you get that joke, I love you.)

In classic Doug and Misty fashion, we worked out a week in Florida on the cheap. Specifically, we spent six nights camping on St. George Island.

Home sweet campsite

Florida was completely awesome, but this post isn't about that. See, a crazy thing happened, like, the minute we got home. Well, I guess not completely crazy. We were planning to buy a car this summer. We weren't planning to buy a car, today.

Mostly, we never dreamed we'd find...

Why, that's a grown-up car!

Meet our (cough) Mercedez-Benz E320. Doug hasn't quit grinning since we left the showroom. He's talked about wanting a Benz for about as long as I can remember. I'm so tickled for him.

(Well, I'm a little tickled for me too. World championship haggling trophy? You bet.)

Spare a thought for our '96 Chevy Beretta, which has served us admirably for nearly 10 years. Tomorrow it will go on to the great salvage yard in the sky, which is to say, the chop shop down the block. *Tear*

P.S. I promise this whole summer of blogging won't be so, "Wooo! Check us out!" Just, probably the next couple of weeks. Then it's back to plain old cooking.

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Summer Bloggin

 Well!

I had a whole big idea for a  post, and then Blogger freaked out at the exact worst possible moment. So I'm going for the titillating teaser instead.

Doug and I set out for St George Island, Florida tomorrow! We're super, duper, triple stoked.

Yep, we's a-going camping. On the beach. It's either going to be amazing or insufferable, but either way? Epic.

Did I mention campfire cooking? On the beach? I oughta get at least a half a summer's worth of posts out of that...

Okay now seriously, bedtime. Because tomorrow I'll be vacationing. On the beach!

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Taco time warp

Doug and I had a mini-road trip to Charlotte over the weekend, where we kicked it with college friends Tanya, Marianne, Cliff, and Jill -- and Jill's kickass blues band!

NOTE: We had so much fun I'm just gonna milk it for two separate posts. Stay tuned for more about the music...

We got to see two (count 'em) two! Jill Dineen Band shows on Saturday, with tacos and beer in between. Yu-hum, yu-hum.

Appetizers and everything! Is this heaven?

The band played its first set at an outdoor venue where we got down on some local pale ale. After almost two hours of beer in the sun, I was prepared to destroy this watermelon. We also had pineapple, strawberries, cucumber, and chips and salsa to tide us over.

Predictably, this pile of fresh vegetables gave me an itchy shutter finger.

Step away from the peppers, Misty. Step. Away.

We started by browning some ground turkey, then added a little water and prepackaged taco seasoning. Never satisfied with those packet things, I suggested we throw in a diced jalapeno. Thankfully Tanya has asbestos fingers. Delicate flower that I am, I gotta use gloves to chop peppers.

The Lady Tanya makes the magic happen.

I had mine with some lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheddar, black beans, and pico de gallo. Heaven in a crunchy corn shell! I totally went back for a soft-shell round two, but by that time had lost my photo-mojo.

Cliff was extremely proud of the Old El Paso flat-bottomed taco shells.

Marianne fired up the Classic Get Psyched Mix playlist (from How I Met Your Mother, she tells me), and we sat around with the band and band's spouses, drinking Bud Light from the can and generally just living large. Nothing says extended family lovin like taco night!

Thank you my friends, for everything. Can't remember when I had this kind of fun.

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Poor, neglected Popcorn

I am struggling with this blog. I've pretty well run through my cooking comfort zone, and I'm only so brave when it comes to experiments. I had this brilliant idea that the KitchenAid would spark a whole series of baking posts. Really? Right at the start of a Hotlanta summer? I'm a doofus. Already the A/C has reached its limits; our place is hitting 80° in the afternoon. Without any cooking. And it's May. So, yeah... The oven and I are on a break.

But what of my road trip? Happily I didn't have to eat crappy food the whole time. My dear friend Dan invited me to chill at his place for a few days, and Dan has a Magic Kitchen. Counter space. Dishwasher. Pots and pans that heat evenly. It's on.

I hit the grocery store and bought supplies for some dishes faithful readers will recognize. Pork chops, green beans, fried chicken, assorted salads. Then came the day before I would leave. I had a random mess of remaining ingredients.

What on Earth will I do with this?

I know! Pasta! 

I set out to fix myself...

Loaded Mac and Cheese

What I used:

• Shredded Mexican four-cheese blend
• Extra sharp cheddar
• Buttermilk
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Onion
• Cooked bacon
• Butter
• Pasta shells

(Note: all quantities are unknown. This was a total chuck-in-whatever's-around kind of dish.)

I started by putting salted water on to boil, and coarsely chopping the broccoli, onion, and garlic. And, as many garlic cloves as I've chopped in my life, I have never witnessed this:

Rare blood garlic? Or just a massive grossout?

I seriously dry heaved. When I recovered, I melted about 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

I don't know who invented butter, but bless 'em anyway.

Then I sweated down the onion and garlic before dumping in everything else. I let that simmer on low while the noodles cooked. As with any pasta bound for the oven, I parboiled, reducing the recommended cooking time by about 1/3. Then I mixed in half the noodles.

Say, this is lookin delicious!

Finally I dumped it all in a casserole, and baked it uncovered at 400° for probably 30-40 minutes.

Ah yes. A brown dish in a black stove. My camera hates me.

Only when I set the dish on the counter did I realize: This was no mac and cheese. It was macaroni and butter.

Oops.

Mercifully I still had some broccoli left. I steamed that up real quick and used it as a bed for the pasta. So I guess this was technically macaroni and broccoli in a cheesy butter sauce. Not something I'd serve at a party, but just for me, totally tasty.

Oh. And what became of the other half of that box of pasta shells? I let it finish cooking and mixed it with some lettuce, Italian dressing, and the remains of a deli chicken salad.

Now this... Was DELICIOUS.

I was all set here to beg for forgiveness, but I've got a better idea. Instead I am begging my readers for help! Got a favorite recipe you'd like to see featured here? Please, please, PLEASE share! Comments or emails, I'll take 'em all. Just no ovens. Deal?

If you find yourself in Athens, Ohio

Edited May 3: I couldn't take the layout problems, so once I was back on the laptop I had to fix the formatting on this post.

I've never tried blogging from the bberry, so I don't know how this post is going to look. Angst.

The photo I hope you can see displays the last 4 bites of a $3.75 "Baby Mama Grande" -- baby means small -- from Big Mama's Burritos. The *only* place I ate downtown during speech nationals at Ohio U. My meal budget thanks you.

Lots of rice, chunks of chicken, identifiable black beans? This ain't some nondescript burrito paste. Cilantro. Just-hot-enough sauce. Sigh...

Find Big Mama's maybe 2 blocks off campus, on Court Street near the movie theater.
End mobile restaurant review...

I made some ridiculous mac & cheese today, which will be the subject of a late week real post. I've been avoiding the internet, seeing as I've had 3-D people to talk to on my road trip.

Also? Turns out I'm kind of a mess at spring cooking.

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